CodePlex VS 2013 Refresh

Now that VS 2013 has shipped, Windows 8.1 SDK is finished, and Windows 8.1 has hit GA--see this post for details--, I've made new releases of my CodePlex projects. Here is a summary of the changes since the last time I blogged about these projects.

All these updates includes the .props files needed to use the Windows 8.1 SDK with VS 2010 and VS 2012, as well as projects for VS 2013.

DirectX Tool Kit

The October 2013 release includes support for the Visual Studio 2012 and 2013 Shader Designer (DGSL) via the new DGSLEffect, which can be used with both .CMO and .SDKMESH models via the DGSLEffectFactory. This includes support for both rigid models and skinned models. Also, the EffectFactory for BasicEffect has been updated to use SkinnedEffect for skinned models loaded from either .CMO or .SDKMESH. This update also fixes some problems with UV texture coordinates from .CMO models which were ignoring the materials UV transform matrix.

Details on DGSLEffect and other changes are covered on the CodePlex documentation wiki.

Note: Support for playing back .CMO keyframe animations and .SDKMESH_ANIM files is in progress. I hope to have it ready for release next month.

Over the summer a number of smaller improvements have been made to DirectXTK including use of sRGB metadata when loading JPEG, PNG, and TIFF files; support for setting custom encoder properties for the WIC version of ScreenGrab; and more GeometricPrimitive shapes including Cone, Tetrahedron, Octahedron, Dodecahedron, and Icosahedron. SimpleMath was added back in February as 'training wheels' for using DirectXMath and to simplify porting code from XNA Game Studio math.

The five versions of DirectXTK Simple Sample have been updated on MSDN Code Gallery for the October 2013 release.